The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 26, 2024

Portrait of Juan Maria Osorio

Portrait of Juan Maria Osorio

c. 1786
(Spanish, 1753–c. 1820)
Spain, 18th century
oil on canvas
Framed: 143.8 x 107.6 x 6.4 cm (56 5/8 x 42 3/8 x 2 1/2 in.); Unframed: 120 x 84 cm (47 1/4 x 33 1/16 in.)
Gift of the Hanna Fund 1946.431
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The boy holds a string attached to a linnet, a type of finch popular as a pet.

Description

Esteve y Marques enjoyed a successful early career as a court painter and society portraitist, working as an assistant to the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya before becoming court painter to King Charles IV. The young subject of this portrait is Juan Maria Osorio, one of three sons of Don Vicente Osorio Moscoso Fernandez de Cordoba, the 13th count of Altamira, who also commissioned multiple family portraits from Goya. Esteve and Goya often shared aristocratic patrons, and there are also portraits of the count and his wife attributed to Esteve. The portrait of Juan Maria is somewhat static in execution, the subject lacking vigor and psychological intensity in Esteve's depiction. Yet some of the stiffness of the Cleveland portrait may be due to the fact that this work was probably a posthumous portrait of Juan Maria, who died in 1785 at the age of five.
  • Possibly Don Vicente Osorio Moscoso Fernandez de Corboba, Count of Altamira and Astorga.
    by 1864 Altamira Family (Madrid, Spain)
    - 1931
    Private collection (Paris, France), sold to Joseph Duveen, 1931
    1931-1946 Duveen Brothers (New York, New York), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1946.
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 483; Mentioned: p. 482-484
    Spanish Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Indianapolis, Indiana, The Art Association, John Herron Museum of Art 1963: cat. no. 26, pl. 26
    Salomon, Xavier F. "Goya and the Altamira Family." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 71, no. 4 (Spring 2014). 44
    Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Picture Book No. 4 . [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952. Reproduced: p. 51 archive.org
  • Goya and the Altamira Family. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (April 22-August 3, 2014).
    Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965).
    El Greco to Goya, A Loan Exhibition of Spanish Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN (organizer) (February 10-March 24, 1963); Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI (February 10-March 24, 1963).
    In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 7, 1958).
    Syracuse (New York) Museum of Fine Arts, February 3-28, 1957: "Goya, Zurubarán, and Spanish Primitives-An Exhibition of Spanish Painings," cat. no. 35; Atlanta (Georgia) Art Association, Galleries, March 1957. Addenda for catalogue published, no. 33.
    Urbana, Illinois, University of Illinois, October 23-November 27, 1955 " Paintings from Midwest Museums," cat. no. 13.
    Winnipeg (Manitoba) Art Gallery, April 16-may 15, 1955: "El Greco to Goya," cat. no. 19.
    Columbus (Ohio) Gallery of Fine Arts, October 8-November 14, 1954: "Masterpieces of Spanish Paining," cat. no. 12.
    Chattanooga (Tennessee) Art Association, The George Thomas Hunter Gallery of Art, May 1952: "First Loan Exhibition, Formal Opening," cat. p. 1.
    Palm Beach, Florida, The Society of the Four Arts, January 11-February 3, 1952: "Spanish Painting Exhibition," cat. no. 16.
    Birmingham (Alabama) Museum of Art, April 8-June 3, 1951: "Opening Exhibition," (No catalogue).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of Juan Maria Osorio|url=false|author=Agustín Esteve y Marques|year=c. 1786|access-date=26 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1946.431